Gorges du Verdon

First things first, "breakfast included" is not that common in French hotels (but standard in B&Bs / maisons d'hôte): it is usually offered for an extra fee (ballpark 15€ for mid-range hotels outside of big cities). You'll find rates with breakfast included from time to time, but they are usually just the sum of the room rate + the price of the breakfast.

As for a base near the Gorges, it depends on your budget.

If you can afford it, the Château de Trigance is truly beautiful - but Trigance is barely a village, so it is quite isolated.

Otherwise, you have:

1. the touristy village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie at the western end of the gorges. Many, many years ago, I enjoyed staying at La Bastide de Moustiers - reviews are still very good - and you'll find plenty of solid options there, usually not cheap though.
2. the smaller village of Castellane at the other end, significantly cheaper, never really stopped there.
3. La Palud sur Verdon right in the middle, but there's not much of a village there.
4. Aups, a bit further to the south, a lively town with several cheaper hotels in the ~€80/night range. I stayed at the Auberge de la Tour ~8 years ago, it wasn't the quietest room, but it was comfortable enough.

We stayed in Les Restanques De Moustiers in 2019. It was very nice. We booked directly. I see it has a 9.2 rating on booking.com, where you can read reviews and compare it to other options. We had breakfast in their very nice breakfast room, but I don’t recall if it was included.

Thanks for your feedback. I'll look at your recommendations and do some more research.

I'm adding that I think it's great that you plan to spend 2 nights. We only spent one night, and I would have loved a second night.

Thanks Barbara. We figured if we stayed only one night we wouldn't have a full day to explore the gorge. It looks beautiful!